The Field by John B. Keane Read Free Book Online Page A

I’m talkin’ to you.
    Maimie: And I hear you, Bull.
    Bull: Maimie, what do you say?
    Maimie: This man has done no harm.
    Bull: Not yet … not yet … but he will.
    Maimie: It isn’t right to beat a man up. He’s alone here.
    Bull: He don’t belong here.
    Maimie: The guards will hear of it.
    Bull: Of course they will, but that’s the end of it as far as they are concerned, if we all keep our mouths shut.
    Maimie: This can lead to nothing but trouble.
    Bull: There will be real trouble if you don’t swear to keep your trap shut. I know enough about you to cause a right plateful of trouble. Your husband might be blind but the Bull McCabe knows your comings and goings like the back of his hand.
    [Leamy looks curiously at his mother and then gets off stool and tries to run past Bull. Bull stops him]
    Bull: And you, boy? You’ll be all right, won’t you? You don’t want your mother to be hurt, do you?
    Maimie: Leamy won’t say a word.
    Bull: Of course he won’t. There’s men around here would think nothing of puttin’ a bomb up ag’in’ a public house door. ’Twas done before, the time of the land division. Who’s to say what people will do?
    [He pats Leamy and dismisses him]
    Maimie: All right! All right! We get the message.
    Bull: That’s great now. ’Tis a weight off my mind to know that my friends are behind me. Now none of you will leave here after me and Tadhg go and when we come back, ’twill be the same as if we never left. Right, Dandy?
    Dandy: Sure thing, Bull.
    Bull: Good health. Good health, Maimie.
    Bird: Good luck, Bull.
    Dandy: Good luck, Bull.
    [Mick rises and goes to the back of the bar]
    Bull: What I would like now is a song and who better than Dandy.
    Bird: Sure Bull.
    Bull: Give us ‘The Poor Blind Boy’, Dandy.
    [Dandy commences to sing ‘The Poor Blind Boy’]
    Dandy: [Sings] She’s left the old field where he played as a baby.
The little white cottage that lies by the sea.
The cradle that rocked him is lonesome and shady
As she thinks of those days that never will be.
    [Bull motions to Tadhg and they exit quietly. The singing goes on]
    They’re far from each other, she cries for her
loved one
By night and by morning since ever he died,
She walked through the field while the cold moon shines down
As she thinks of the fate of the poor blind boy.
    [End of Act One]

ACT TWO
Scene 1
    [Action takes place at a gateway on the bóithrín near the main Carraigthomond road. The time is midnight. Two figures are huddled together. They are the Bull McCabe and his son, Tadhg. The Bull unwraps a small paper parcel and hands Tadhg a sandwich]
    Bull: Eat that!
    [Tadhg accepts sandwich and takes a large bite from it. Bull carefully ties the parcel again and puts it in his pocket]
    Tadhg: ’Tis bloody cold! [Slapping between his armpits]
    Bull: ’Tis April, boy! ’Tis April. Listen and you can hear the first growth of the grass. The first music that was ever heard. That was a good bit o’ sun today. A few more days like it and you won’t know the face of the field.
    Tadhg: D’you think he’ll come?
    Bull: Hard to say. Hard to say. You’re sure you saw no sign of him all day.
    Tadhg: Positive.
    Bull: He wouldn’t have come by the river unknown to you?
    Tadhg: No chance! I hid in the shelter since we left the pub this morning and Johnny Sweeney was here till we came from the pub now. All I seen was crows … nothin’ but crows. What do they be doin’ … perched in the field all day? They weren’t eatin’ grass and they weren’t diggin’ snails. Just perched there, takin’ no notice of anythin’. Do they be thinkin’ like us?
    Bull: I enjoy a crow as much as the next man. The first up in the morning is the crow and the soonest under his quilt.
    Tadhg: I seen a few water-rats today.
    Bull: Crafty sons o’ whores!
    Tadhg: They say that